Retaining
its spot as the largest company in the world, the retail giant spent
the last year making strides toward becoming friendlier to its workers
and the environment. Long derided for the limited health-care packages
offered to its employees, the company focused on expanding its options.
As of January, 93.7% of Wal-Mart’s U.S. employees had some form of
health care, up from 90.4% last year. On the sustainability front, the
retailer sold 145 million energy-efficient light bulbs in 15 months and
joined forces with the Clinton Climate Initiative. Some say it isn’t
enough; a union-backed ad campaign by WakeUpWalMart.com at the end of
2007 targeted the quality of the company’s imported products.

Big
companies know how to make big deals, and at the end of last March,
Exxon Mobil signed onto a $5 billion project with Saudi Aramco and
Sinopec to expand an existing venture in the Fujian province - marking
the first fully integrated petrochemical plant in China backed by
foreign investment. Exxon had its best year ever in terms of safety
results, while the competition didn’t fare as well. But the high cost of
refining hurt Exxon just as much as it hurt the rest. Even with a
record of $40.6 billion in net income, profits were up only 2.8% from
the previous year.3. Royal Dutch ShellRank: 3 (Previous rank: 3)CEO: Jeroen van der VeerEmployees: 104,000Address: Carel van Bylandtlaan 30The Hague 2596Country: Netherlands

Code:

Website: http://www.shell.com

In
the face of the current energy crisis, Royal Dutch Shell has made its
own moves to ensure the company’s future. Two large projects included
acquiring a 22% stake in Shell Canada - increasing its access to the
vast oil sands in Alberta - and moving forward with Pearl GTL, a
gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar. But the year wasn’t without glitches.
Shell saw its stake in one of its biggest projects - the Russian-based
Sakhalin II - reduced to 27% from 55%, as the Russian government
asserted control over the country’s oil industry.

Another
tumultuous year for the oil giant: BP was forced to clean up its
Whiting, Ind., refinery after it was hit by the EPA with clean-air
violations, faced multiple fires on its Alaskan oil fields, and had to
deal with the departure of Chief Executive and Director John Browne.
Much of the U.K.-based company’s time was spent handling its U.S.
operations, as it modernized Whiting and dealt with the repercussions of
the 2005 blast in Texas City. Yet the American operations weren’t all
bad news - a $2.4 billion investment in the San Juan basin and deepwater
drilling projects in the Gulf could be helpful in the next few years,
once BP’s messes are behind it.

Detroit’s
decline worked in Toyota’s favor, as the leader in hybrid-electric
vehicles pushed past its American rivals on this year’s list. Overall,
Toyota sold only 3,000 fewer vehicles than global leader General Motors.
But the Japanese company gained on its rival in the United States: GM’s
sales fell 6% on its home turf, while Toyota’s sales rose 3.1%.

A
leader when it comes to offshore drilling, the California-based company
is relying on a number of projects - including Tahiti, which stalled
production in 2007 - to alleviate demands at home and abroad. In an
effort to clean up its image, Chevron launched its largest-ever global
advertising campaign, called “The Power of Human Energy,” to prove that
it too is concerned with climate change. The company’s progress is
promising. With a net income of $18.7 billion in 2007, it was the fourth
consecutive year Chevron achieved record earnings.

The
only financial institution to make our top 10, ING was up 31% in
profits from 2006. This was due in part to the company’s streamlining,
as it sold many noncore businesses, and partly due to a focus on global
branding, with mass advertising set around the sponsorship of a Formula
One team. ING continued to push into emerging markets, with primary
investments in Thailand, Latin America, Turkey and South Korea. Although
INGDirect.com provides just a small portion of the company’s profits,
it added 3 million users in 2007, and now boasts over 20 million users
worldwide.

It
was a good year for the oil and gas company, as newly launched
operations in Africa helped push up net production by 5%, which Total
translated into a 22.2% increase in profits. But the year wasn’t without
scandal for the French company, as new CEO Christophe de Margerie was
placed under investigation in early 2007 for allegedly paying bribes to
win the 1997 Iran South Pars project. The company insists that the
agreement was lawful, and Margerie remains chief executive.

It
was a tough year for GM, as it suffered a loss of nearly $39 billion
and continues to lose market share to Japanese rivals Toyota and Honda.
But, with a diverse portfolio of brands, General Motors did hit some
international milestones; combined with its local partners, it was the
first automaker to sell 1 million vehicles in China, and sales increased
74% in India. Even with its commitment to emerging markets, though, the
company spent much of 2007 handling labor issues back home.

Dropping
one spot on our list, ConocoPhillips saw a steep 23.5% decline in
profits. The Texas-based company spent some $5.4 billion to reduce debt -
incurred after the Burlington Resources acquisition in 2006 - and took a
$4.5 billion hit due to Venezuela’s expropriation of Conoco’s assets.
ConocoPhillips did make advances in the energy field, however, by
teaming up with Tyson Foods to further its work in the biofuels
industry.

Although
Detroit’s Big Three all had to deal with United Auto Workers union
issues and a struggling dollar, Daimler was the only one to cut its
American ties by reducing its share in Chrysler to 19.9% and dropping
the U.S. subsidiary from its name. The German automaker took an initial
hit from the deal, posting its first quarterly loss since 2003. But the
strength of the Mercedes-Benz brand kept Daimler in the black, as the
company saw a hefty 34.5% annual increase in profits.

The
“G” in “GE” might as well stand for “global.” The iconic American
company now derives about half of its $176.7 billion in revenue from
outside the United States. Not surprisingly, the conglomerate is
currently looking shed some domestic businesses. Its appliance business
is up for sale, and General Electric announced last year that GE Money
would exit the troubled U.S. mortgage business.

A
series of belt-tightening strategies, such as cutting plants and jobs
and eliminating luxury brands, helped Ford narrow its loss to $2.7
billion in 2007. Revenue increased 7.7%, but U.S. sales fell 12%, and
market share declined to 14.6% from 16% a year earlier. This year may be
even tougher, as skyrocketing gas prices pull customers away from
Ford’s current inventory of trucks and SUVs. It may take years for the
automaker’s restructuring plans to bear fruit.

Fortis
strengthened its leadership position in Benelux - Belgium, the
Netherlands and Luxembourg - and Asian markets last year with several
major acquisitions. As a part of a consortium, it acquired Dutch bank
ABN AMRO. To get a foothold in Asia, it bought Hong Kong’s Pacific
Century Insurance Holdings Limited. Last November, Fortis sold a 4.18%
stake to Ping An, one of China’s biggest insurance companies, making it
the bank’s single largest shareholder. (Today Ping An owns closer to 5%
of Fortis.)

The
leading European insurance company continued to see double-digit growth
last year. Revenue climbed 6.5% to $162.8 billion, and profit rose
21.6% to $7.76 billion. AXA already has beachheads in mature domestic
and European markets; now it is expanding through acquisitions in
Britain, Italy, South Korea and the Ukraine.

The
world’s third-largest oil refiner by capacity raised profit to $4.17
billion in 2007, a 12.5% increase from a year ago. The oil giant greatly
expanded its exploration and production resources as a long-term
strategy. Last year, the discovery of natural gas resources in China’s
southwest fueled Sinopec’s gas output growth. Though the Chinese
government lifted the prices of gasoline, diesel and other fuels in
November 2007 and June 2008, Sinopec had to absorb refining costs as oil
prices skyrocketed. In addition, Sinopec reassigned a new chairman, Su
Shulin, to replace former Chairman Chen Tonghai, who resigned for
personal reasons.

As
a direct result of the U.S. subprime crisis, Citi’s 2007 profits sank
83.2% to $3.62 billion. The company cut costs by eliminating staff and
shedding legacy assets. But a double-digit revenue growth in its
international markets offset its loss in the domestic market. Management
changes also shook things up at Citigroup: Former CEO Charles Prince
retired under pressure after the company announced at least $18 billion
in write-downs. He was succeeded by Vikram Pandit, a veteran investment
banker from Morgan Stanley.18. VolkswagenRank: 18 (Previous rank: 16)CEO: Martin WinterkornEmployees: 329,305Address: Brieffach 1848-2Wolfsburg 38436Country: GermanyWebsite: Volkswagen Deutschland

High
oil prices and the “greening” of industry have hit automakers
especially hard. But CEO Martin Winterkorn responded by pledging to lead
Europe’s biggest carmaker into a greener and more sustainable era.
Thanks to global sales of its core brands like Audi, profit was up 63.5%
to $5.64 billion last year. Still, VW struggled in the United States.
It cut prices on its Jetta and New Beetle models and launched new plants
in an attempt to boost U.S. market share. Winterkorn aims to triple
VW’s American sales by 2018. The company will announce the location of a
new U.S. manufacturing plant in July.

Dexia
had another year of solid growth in 2007. Revenue was up 54% to $147.6
billion, though the big jump was largely due to an accounting change.
Last November, the French-Belgian bank agreed to acquire a social
housing loan book with roughly $4.5 billion in assets from U.K. mortgage
lender Bradford & Bingley. Dexia says the deal will broaden its
customer base and increase its visibility in the home-loan market. It
also plans to push into more financing of public projects.

Strong
growth in Asia helped the bank to cushion billions of losses it took in
the U.S. market due to the subprime mortgage crisis. Overall profit was
up 21% from a year ago. As the bank tried to clean up its troubled U.S.
mortgage loans, it focused on developing businesses in emerging
markets. In 2007, HSBC expanded into Japan, Vietnam, South Korea and
India by launching new branches and services.

BNP
Paribas posted a 16.8% jump in net profit last year, as it withstood
the credit crisis better than some of its European and U.S.
counterparts. Thanks to solid growth in consumer credit, retail banking
in emerging markets and asset management, France’s largest bank (in
market value) increased its total revenue by 28.9% to $140.7 billion
last year. That pushed BNP Paribas up another four spots on our list.

Despite
a series of natural disasters in Europe and the subprime crisis in the
United States, Allianz’s growth did not slow in 2007. Following a strong
performance in 2006, the company’s overall revenue grew 12%, while
profit climbed 23.8%. Three of its four units - life insurance, non-life
insurance and asset management - contributed to the improved profit.

The
year 2007 was a turbulent period for France’s largest retail bank. Not
only did the subprime mortgage crisis hit earnings and profits, but a
$348 million unauthorized trade last September also worsened overall
performance. Profit shrunk by 9% from a year ago, to $8.2 billion.

Thanks
to China’s fast-growing economy, the mainland’s largest power
distributor saw profits nearly double in 2007, to $4.4 billion.Now State
Grid is doing deals outside its borders: In December, a consortium
including State Grid successfully bid $3.95 billion for a 25-year
concession to operate Philippines’ power transmission. The Chinese
company also signed a power purchase agreement with its Russian
counterpart, RAO UES.

China’s
largest oil and gas company jumped one position in the Global 500
rankings on a 17% increase in sales. The company’s future seems secure:
It recently announced the discovery of the Nanpu oil field, the biggest
oil field China has located in the past three decades, according to the
company’s annual report. China National Petroleum also newly identified
565.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas in Sulige Gas Province, which
was China’s first gas field with a proven reserve of more than 1
trillion cubic meters.Sumber: http://masih-berharap.blogspot.com/2010/03/25-perusahaan-terbesar-di-dunia.html